The First Belarusian Woman to Reach Carstensz Summit

Carstensz has several other names and are called a certain name by certain people, Nemangkawi is what the tribe of Amungme calls it and Mpaigelah is what the tribe of Moni named it. It is one of the seven summits of the world, soaring at 4,884 meters (16,024 ft) above sea level, the highest peak of Indonesia and Oceania.

Carstensz has extraordinary sceneries whether along the trekking route or once you reach the summit. It really takes guts and also requires technical climbing to reach the top. The place where climbers from all around the world come to pump their adrenaline and beat the challenge of the summit.

There are several tour operators who bring tourists up to Carstensz. Adventure Carstensz is one of them, it is a local tour company based in Timika, Papua. We have experiences guiding climbers from all around the world to the summit since as early as 2009. In the beginning of 2019, our local guide successfully leaded a group of climbers to summit Carstensz. One of the group members is a woman from Belarus. She is the first woman originating from Belarus that succeeded to conquer Carstensz summit.

Kseniya Melnikava is the young Belarusian woman with the passion of climbing mountains; especially those considered one of the Seven Summits. Coming to Indonesia with high expectation of the Carstensz summit, she was surprised that going up to Carstensz was not as easy as she had imagined. It was beyond her expectation. Climbing Carstensz was more similar to doing rock wall climbing which was more technical. It was absolutely perspiring and for worse, the first trial ended up in a failure. The team decided to go back to basecamp after facing snowstorm halfway through climbing.

Half despaired, Kseniya got into the tent, laid down to regain her energy while hoping that the following day could be a blessed one for the second trial. And it was. The weather was perfect. Ksenia and the team set foot on top of Carstensz in the morning of February 5, 2019.

When she first arrived, The Immigration’s office Mimika noticed that she was the first Belarusian citizen to ever reach Timika, making Kseniya the first Belarusian woman to conquer Carstensz Pyramid, on the very same day on Chinese New Year.

Adventure Carstensz was very happy and proud to successfully lead Kseniya and her friends to reach Carstensz summit. This is just another milestone, which we will continue to push in upcoming time. We are excited to guide other climbers and interested clients to trust us guiding them to the top.